What does it Mean to be ‘Critical’ in is Research?

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to explore what it means to conduct 'critical' research in IS. In order to begin this, it is necessary to look beyond the scope of IS inquiry itself to other disciplines, especially organizational analysis. A preliminary review is made of the state of critical thinking in the elds of information systems and organization. In addressing the question 'what is critical research?' the paper shows how de nitions have changed and broadened over time.In critical research more generally it has been suggested that there are several major weaknesses in theory and application. Two key themes in particular need further attention. They are emancipation and power relations. The paper outlines some of the reasons why these two issues have been highlighted and discusses their relevance within the context of critical IS research.A recent emerging trend is identi ed towards the use of Habermas in the speci c area of critical IS inquiry. Some of the reasons for this apparent trend are considered and the main features of thinking as applied in this regard are summarized and commented on. Finally, the paper argues that unless we wish to become locked into a Habermasian discourse, IS research must continue to push beyond this thinking in order to enrich our work. The work of Foucault is used to illustrate how the weaknesses identi ed in critical theory at the beginning of this paper might be addressed. It concludes by contrasting the contributions made by Habermas and Foucault to critical research in IS. What is critical information systems research?Traditionally, critical theory has been described as a form of historical materialism and is much in uenced by issues of class, ethnicity, and gender. Critical theory tends to view situations through a lens of local domination by powers-that-be, with the potential for localized resistance. Hegemony is a characteristic, with con ict and contradictory tensions featuring in the analysis. It is generally agreed that critical theory has substantial (though not exclusive) roots in the Frankfurt School of the late 1920s. This intellectual movement was a reaction to the perceived domination of thinking at the time by positivism and can be understood against a backdrop of a post-Enlightenment, Modernist social context. Key thinkers include Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Jürgen Habermas and Herbert Marcuse.The Frankfurt School identi ed taken-for-granted assumptions about aspects of their contemporary society and argued that their form and nature were shaped by existing social and historical contexts. They also highlighted that the very ways in which such shaping was recorded and represented were themselves the product of their time, and could (and should) be called into question. This has given rise to critical theory's claim to be able to mount a self-critique of its own knowledge claims as well as to be able to mount a critique of social conditions. Underlying the focus of the Frankfurt School was the desire not only to expose inadequacies in society but...

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